The present invention relates to an image recording apparatus and an image recording method. More particularly, the invention relates to an apparatus and a method whereby TV programs are preset for unattended recording.
Today, technological innovations for recording and reproducing TV programs abound: greater availability of storage media such as hard discs with larger capacities at lower costs, techniques for higher-speed access to the storage medium for recording and playback, processes for recording, reproducing and transmitting data at higher speeds than ever, and methods for compression-coding at higher speeds of video and audio signals involving moving images. These innovative systems and schemes have given rise to the development of a new type of image recording apparatus capable of compression-coding video and audio signals of TV programs for recording, decoding and reproduction.
The above type of image recording apparatus can record video and audio signals of a plurality of TV programs on a mass storage medium typified by hard discs. Given such recording capabilities, the image recording apparatus should preferably be equipped with a program preset function for presetting a plurality of TV programs for unattended recording, as well as a recording control function for recording the preset programs onto the storage medium.
The image recording apparatus capable of letting users preset TV programs for unattended recording typically permits preselection of the start and end times of each desired TV program to be recorded; program input routes over which to record the programs such as channel numbers; and levels of image quality at which the recordings are to be made. Given these settings, the apparatus is generally capable of verifying whether any preset TV programs for unattended recording overlap with one another between their preset time zones.
The question is what to do if any TV programs are found to overlap between their preset time zones. The image recording apparatus should preferably deal with such overlapping preset TV programs in a way that is easy to handle and optimally satisfying to the user.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and a method for dealing with overlapping preset TV programs for unattended recording between their preset time zones in a manner highly manageable and maximally satisfying to the user.